One game away for the Heat!

Dwayne "Flash" Wade dunks one over the Mavericks. His critical free throws with 1.9 seconds left in overtime has Miami within one win of its first NBA title ever! It's exciting for me - I've waited a long time to see Miami win a title, but to be honest, I'm distracted with a potential Oiler Stanley Cup. However, I do tune in to watch. I'm just not up out of my chair flipping out over calls, victories, mistakes, defeats, etc. But, it's fun. I'd be a lot more excited if the Oilers were eliminated from the playoffs, but with the Cup run, the NBA takes a back seat, no question.

It will be cool to see Shaq win his 4th title (always been a big fan of his!), Riley's 5th, and Wade's first.

Pat directing the troops. It's amazing to see him having success after all of these years. (He hasn't won an NBA title on any level since 1988; ironically, that's the year the Heat came into the league.) He's still the master; he knows what he's doing, even when everyone else thinks he doesn't. Miami's playoff run has been improbable this year, just like Edmonton's has, but the Oilers run has been a far bigger surprise. At least Miami made the Conference Finals last year - Edmonton had not been that far in the playoffs in 14 years.

One other quick note on this series. Above is Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Is there a bigger douche in all of sports, owner or otherwise? This is an NBA owner, wearing a jersey to a game! He's reason enough to root against whoever the Mavs are playing. What a smackdass.

Go Heat!

Heat's cookin'

I'm a little overdue to talk about my other, "forgotten" team that has moved deep in the playoffs - the Miami Heat. To be honest, of all four major professional sports in North America, basketball is my 4th favorite. Family and close friends know that I've been a Miami fan since 1988, when they came into the league. They've never won anything, and I'm not sure if this will be the year that they do. I'm not a "frontrunner" or "bandwagon" Miami fan (incidentally, I hate the word bandwagon - so trite and hackneyed in sports fandom), but I'm not a crazed NBA fan, either.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited that they might make it to the NBA Finals for the first time ever, but getting past Detroit is a tall order indeed. Last night's victory was a start, but I think this is going to be one long series. The Miami fan in me says Shaq will get his 4th ring this year and his first with the Heat, but the realist in me says that Detroit is going to be very difficult to beat, and the Pistons will probably win this very close series. I hope I'm wrong though and that Miami takes the Pistons out.

Hopefully Edmonton will close out their series vs. the Ducks tomorrow night so I can watch some of the Heat games more closely. I'm very busy these days and haven't had a whole lot of time for basketball. Hockey gets all the spare time first - hockey will always be #1.

Anyway...

GO HEAT!